I spent my entire college fund and I have no regrets

[Ramnares P.E.]

Massive eye roll at this:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-college-student-blows-inheritance-bert-show-205833329.html

 

[matt267 PE]

Her actions were just as stupid as Yahoo's over use of meme's. It feels like Mike wrote it.

 

[SNAPE/SMOTT PE]

I agree with your sentiment, sir!

I just had a discussion with someone at work about a couple other people we work with who pretty much have a similar attitude, and how it has affected their thoughts on work.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Her actions were just as stupid as Yahoo's over use of meme's. It feels like Mike wrote it.

Nah Mike didn't write this one, he was too busy bailing out his basement.

 

[csb]

I could have gone to school at my alma mater for 25 years with that much money and STILL gone to Europe!

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

What an idiot. She deserves to work two or three jobs to pay for college.

 

[engineergurl]

I could have gone to school at my alma mater for 25 years with that much money and STILL gone to Europe!

I was questioning the cost of the school as well...

In all honesty, I am going to disagree with you all on the fact that she's an idiot mostly because we don't know the whole story, just what the media and interview protrayed of it. If her tuition for the final year is 20K, and she's already paid for three years, that means she's only blown through 30K in 3 years. Even assuming her room and board were included in the 20k that was considered a tuition bill (which personally I think they may not be since it says TUITON not college expenses) and figuring a trip to and around Europe could cost about $5000 to $7000, then she's only spent on average $7700 per year or about $640 a month.

Of course now days most college students have cars (which means a car payment (cheap end maybe $200 a month) and insurnace (another $150 or so maybe), cell phone at another $100 a month and that leaves less than $200. I know personally when I was in school, we would go out to bars, order pizza, take road trips to cool places.

My point being, is that I can see how it could be easy to "blow through all that money" ESPECIALLY if you are in the mind set that "you have a college fund that will cover it" which very well could have been the way her parents portayed it.

I went to school before I was 18 so my freshman year my first batch of loans covered my tuition and then the reimbursement check got cut to my parents some how and they doled out the money ($100 at a time or so) when I asked. Eventually they said that there wasn't anymore left and I was like, what the heck? The second semester the check came to me and I budgeted much better and had cash leftover to start the summer out.

My point is I was angry at my parents and blamed them and probably sounded like a spoiled brat at the time, but had I sat down with Dad and gone over how much I should be alotted a month out of whatever the intial value was (and to this day i'm still not even sure how much it was), then the situation wouldn't have happened in the first place.

 

[csb]

I spent $350 a month. Of course, that was the olden days when I had a landline and I didn't have a car.

Wait a minute...

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

I think she's an entitled idiot but my opinion may be biased by the fact that I had to work to pay for college, even though my parents paid for part of it and scholarships covered the rest. I had to work full time and pay for both my Master's degrees though.

 

[Lumber Jim]

Must be nice to be able to afford 2 master's degrees... oking:

<----- (still paying student loans after working through school with 2 jobs during the summers... and it was up hill both ways!!)

 

[engineergurl]

even though my parents paid for part of it

ummmm....

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

even though my parents paid for part of it

ummmm....

Guess you missed the part about paying for the 2 MS on my own. And her trust fund (90k) was much greater than what my parents provided.

 

[engineergurl]

even though my parents paid for part of it

ummmm....

Guess you missed the part about paying for the 2 MS on my own. And her trust fund (90k) was much greater than what my parents provided.

Not really, but MS degrees aren't college, it's bonus college for adults and most people I know have gotten their graduate degrees as adults while working full time and often raising a family

Any one who had to work any amount in college is probably going to feel like she is coming across as entitled. I guess I just feel like if someone is being given something then of course they are going to come to expect it. You pointed out awful quickly that you didn't get as much as her, as well as repeated the fact that you paid for your graduate degrees, so it SOUNDS like you felt that your parents contributed an amount that met your expectations, however to people who's parents didn't give them a dime, you could come across as entiled because your in essence saying "well, yeah, my parents helped, but it's not like I got as much as so and so and I still had to work. And then I had to pay for my extra degrees all by my self..."

so how easy it is to twist things to a different perspective?

 

[engineergurl]

also, i'm not picking on you, so don't get defensive... I'm just trying to say, we often hear what we are being told to hear

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

Should have gone to a cheaper school.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

[engineergurl]

Should have gone to a cheaper school.

Why? The intent was for the college fund to pay for college and at 20,000 a year, this school was well with in the budget, if there had been a budget

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

By your logic, she may have had $200 a month, give or take to spend. She, by her own admission, had no clue how to budget her money. Cheaper school = more spending cash.

I had to chose schools based on affordability. It's called life and hopefully she learns from it. That would help to make her a more responsible adult, in my opinion.

 

[csb]

At 17, when applying for colleges, my parents had a very frank discussion with me about what they could afford to spend on college. It meant the out-of-state schools I had wanted to attend were out of the question. I have said it before and I'll say it again- I'm grateful my parents were able to pay for my college. I left school with a $1500 loan. I'm also forever grateful that, when I tried to drop out after my freshman fall semester, my dad told me that it would just be harder the longer I waited. They had a number of open discussions with me about money and seeing things through and it paid off.

I've got the feeling this girl never got that discussion. She just heard $90K for "education." I put that in quotes because she felt her trip to Europe was part of that. Any fun I had, I paid for. Food, I paid for. I think even paying for that gives you a much different perspective than someone who has it all paid for.

My boss didn't pay for his kids' college. He instead took all the money he would have spent and put it in an account, which he gifted to each child after they graduated. They could use it to pay off the loans, put a down payment on a house, travel, whatever. He said student loans are easy to get. Cash is not.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

My boss didn't pay for his kids' college. He instead took all the money he would have spent and put it in an account, which he gifted to each child after they graduated. They could use it to pay off the loans, put a down payment on a house, travel, whatever. He said student loans are easy to get. Cash is not.

I like this idea.